Redmi Note 7: First Thoughts

The Redmi Note 3 my parents have been using is almost two years old now, and I’ve had it repaired a bunch of times to keep it breathing, but recently I found out my dad smashed the screen again.

So I couldn’t be bothered to keep it on life support. The Redmi Note 7 is out, so let’s just switch to that.

The flash sale:

Lots of people say you can’t buy Xiaomi phones, but by around March, getting a Redmi Note 7 wasn’t that out of reach anymore.

When I say “out of reach,” I mean that gone-in-a-second feeling. Now if you want one, camping out at the sale time still works — JD, Tmall, the official site, all fine.

You can go to a physical store too, but the Redmi Note 7 is probably an online model; physical stores only get the black colorway, and it has to be the top-spec version so they can protect their margins.

Anyway, I grabbed two phones during one of the sales, different colors, one from the official site and one from Tmall. I actually wanted to buy both from the official site, but it limits you to one per person. Of course it does.

After buying them I realized I was a bit naive, because even though Xiaomi phones are easy to grab now, they don’t ship right away — you have to queue. Basically they copied the overseas pre-order model. I waited about a week before the official site finally shipped, and Tmall took around 10 days. So the shipping speed ranking goes like this:

Official site > Tmall > JD

Impressions:

Once the phone arrived it felt fine. I paired it with a Nillkin case and screen protector — no white edges, but it’s not full-screen. Nillkin makes full-screen ones too, they’re just a bit ugly, so it’s personal preference. And yes, it definitely has an oleophobic coating.

Since both my parents were already using Xiaomi phones, migrating data was dead simple. You just need Xiaomi’s official app and the same Wi-Fi, and everything transfers over untouched. Though WeChat and similar apps have huge data, so it can take a while.

After migrating, the phone was ready to use. As for this phone… there are tons of reviews online already, I can only say it feels exactly like that. Nothing wrong with it, it’s worth the price.

After-sales:

If there’s anything about this phone that annoys me… there is one thing… and that’s how the internet keeps hyping it as “Little King Kong,” going on about how durable it is. In reality, not so much.

My mom used it for less than two weeks, dropped it once, and the screen was done for…

If you bother to search online, you’ll find plenty of users who barely touched their phones and the screen cracked, while at the same time there are all kinds of torture tests saying the screen is fine. I don’t know what’s going on either — probably the structural design. Drop it face-on and it’s fine; hit it on the side and it cracks.

Since it was only two weeks old, the only option was to take it to the service center and pay out of pocket. Ended up spending 300 yuan for a screen replacement, and they threw in a screen protector…

Oh right, the free protector is Xiaomi’s official one, and Xiaomi’s official protectors have terrible oleophobic coating. Don’t bother using them.

So the summary of this purchase comes down to three points:

1. The Redmi Note 7 isn’t hard to buy, you just have to wait for shipping.
2. Buy the cracked-screen insurance when you get a Redmi Note 7 — it’s not as tough as the legends say.
3. Xiaomi’s official screen protectors are crap.

Done.